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Benetton family fancies a quick bite at Little Chef

ITALY’s super-rich Benetton family is in talks to buy Little Chef, the chain of roadside restaurants.

The family has made an approach through Autogrill, the Italian motorway services company it already owns. Little Chef, which is known throughout the country for its Fat Charlie logo, attracts nearly 20m customers a year, has revenues of £70m and makes profits of £3m.

The restaurant chain, which employs 3,200 people, was bought out of administration last January by R Capital. After the approach from Italy, R Capital has appointed Cavendish, the corporate-finance boutique, to pursue talks with Autogrill while exploring all other options.

Paul Herman, a director at Cavendish, declined to comment on the identities of the parties that are holding talks with R Capital. But he believes Little Chef could benefit from being part of a larger group.